Following Riyadh’s accusation that the UAE assisted a separatist commander in escaping, Saudi-backed forces took action on Thursday to seize a crucial city in southern Yemen. Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the leader of Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council (STC), which is supported by the United Arab Emirates, departed the country by boat “in the dead of night” for Somaliland, then boarded an aircraft to Mogadishu, which subsequently took him to a military airport in Abu Dhabi, according to “reliable intelligence” cited by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
The National Shield Forces (NSF), a government ally, had “secured” the southern city of Aden and its security situation was “under control,” according to a statement from the interior ministry of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. A video depicting a sizable convoy of military trucks mobilizing to “secure several provinces” in the south that had been taken over by the STC and affiliated militias was shared on social media by the NSF. The statements cannot be independently verified by CNN.
Yemen’s government has been based in Aden since the Houthi movement, supported by Iran, seized control of the country’s capital, Sana’a, in 2014. A year later, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened militarily. When the southern soldiers arrived last month, government officials stationed there fled to Riyadh.
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